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About Cover

Peter Mendelsund has enjoyed years as a much-sought-after book cover designer and art director. Among the many recognizable jackets he has created are those for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo; collections of the works of Joyce, Kafka, Dostoevsky, de Beauvoir, and Foucault; the contemporary works of Martin Amis, Tom McCarthy, Ben Marcus, Jo Nesbø, and James Gleick; and many more. All have greatly benefitted from the care and touch Mendelsund gave them.

Cover abounds with Mendelsund’s completed book jackets along with ephemera from his previously unseen creative method, including jacket sketches, interior art and editorial illustrations, and scores of rejected drafts. These images are punctuated by Mendelsund’s reflections on his work and his process, as well as by texts from writers with whom he has worked and designed for.

Cover is a compendium of beautiful design and a beautiful design object itself; a profile and celebration of one of the publishing world’s most talented and prolific contemporary creators, and a brilliant showcase of his deft touch for balanced and innovative design.

Praise

“He suffers from a surfeit of ideas. In the past decade, Mr. Mendelsund has designed about 600 book jackets, ranging from a sober, sophisticated cover for Tolstoy’s ‘War and Peace’ to his whimsical Pop Art-like treatment of Kafka’s novella ‘Metamorphosis,’ to the hypnotic fluorescent swirls on Stieg Larsson’s thriller ‘The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.'” -The New York Times

“‘Cover’ is foremost a visually enticing tour of some of the most important books of recent times, made even more memorable by Mendelsund’s daring covers. The beautifully designed volume is nicely paced with a mix of testimonials from authors whose book covers Mendelsund has designed, along with his own comments on various aspects of the design process.” -The Washington Post

“Among book designers, Peter Mendelsund is the best reader of all. You always recognize one of his covers when you see it, and it’s not because he tends toward certain colors or typefaces—quite the opposite. Rather, it’s something about the way the cover illuminates the text. You can tell he didn’t just read the manuscript; he internalized it. The result somehow feels both inevitable and surprising: the only possible solution but one you could never dream up yourself.” -Bomb

“‘Cover’ provides insight into the designer’s process and pushes us to reconsider what we think we know about the graphic representation of words and ideas.” -New Republic

“Once in a while I’m presented with covers that cross the barriers of cultural reference and visual language. That feel universal. That feel like perfect starts to stories. Covers that I don’t want the reader to forget, but to carry with them throughout my books. Those covers are Peters Mendelsund’s covers.”-Jo Nesbø, author of The Snowman

“Upbeat and thrilling to look at, his designs are works of art, and at the same time they encapsulate the writer’s truest goal.”-Nicholas Fox Weber, author of Le Corbusier, and The Bauhaus Group

“Peter Mendelsund is a true artist.” -Ben Marcus, author of The Flame Alphabet

“Peter Mendelsund has the ability to visually and conceptually distill a narrative in such a way that it seems effortlessly inventive, striking, smart, fresh and yet classic. And he does it again and again and again. How I hate him.” -Chip Kidd

“He’s the exact visual correlative of what I think contemporary literature should be, but usually isn’t doing.”-Tom McCarthy, author of Remainder